The Sports Bizzo

By Jon…

I was talking with a friend at work the other day, a Phillies fan, I guess the night of the postponed game 5, about whether baseball would actually end a World Series on a rain-shortened game. We both decided that it would be an utter travesty if the MLB braintrust allowed that to happen. He, as the Phillies fan, really wanted to see them win a completely legit series, instead of winning a tainted Series that would be questioned and ridiculed for year’s to come. And I, as the completely objective observer, really just wanted to see Baseball not completely screw up again.

And yet somehow they managed to do both.

By calling the game in the top of an inning, it can’t possibly be deemed as fair, because the teams will be pitching and hitting in entirely different circumstances. The Rays tied the game in the top of the 6th inning with the rain coming down so hard that Phillies’ pitcher Cole Hamels said he couldn’t even throw his off-speed pitches. So he gave up the lead in circumstances that didn’t allow him to be effective.

That was Baseball’s first mistake.

The fact that they didn’t have a plan laid out before the game, making both teams aware of said decision, and then making the decision when the inevitable happened was Baseball’s second mistake.

The last mistake is the one no one is talking about.

Baseball should have called the game at the end of the fifth, with the Phillies in the lead, and they should have given the Phillies the title right then and there.

Sounds crazy, right?’

Hear me out:

If Baseball calls the game because of rain and gives the Phillies the title, something amazing would’ve happened. The Tarp would have come out, the commissioner would’ve come out with the trophy, and the World Champion Philadelphia Phillies would’ve gotten to celebrate their First Title in a Really Long Time, on one big ass, awesome, Slip-N-Slide.

How am I the only one who thought of this?

As an about-to-jump-off-the-baseball-bandwagon fan, I would have absolutely continued to watch the post-game celebration. Post-game celebrations have become so scripted, boring, and homogenous, that I normally tune out almost immediately, which sucks. One of my favorite things about sports is seeing the players and coaches and fans celebrate at the exact moment when they realize they’ve won. It’s spontaneous and fun and so full of outright joy. Call me a softy, I don’t care. It’s one of my favorite things about sports.

Think about how awesome it all could’ve been: Bud Selig comes out, says the game has been called, and the Phillies are the champions. Everyone looks around, half-stunned at the revelation, and then Jimmy Rollins and Ryan Howard take off in a dead-sprint toward the field, and slide across the rain soaked tarp. The rest of the team follows, and eventually, so caught up in the moment, Big, Fat Phillies Manager Charlie Manuel waddles out to the field and slides over home plate, soaked in Rain and Happiness. His players come to help him up and he accepts the World Championship trophy from Bud Selig, who can’t help but smile just a little bit, because whether he was right or wrong, he just enjoyed a moment, a real moment.

And that’s Baseball’s problem. They let things happen when they shouldn’t, and they stop things from happening when they should.